Sailor found after 80 days adrift

Stig Lundvall, a 66-year-old Swedish sailor, was rescued Tuesday 40 nautical miles off the coast of South Africa. He left last July from Falmouth, England, and hadn’t been seen since. He told rescuers he lost the mast on his Marieholm 26 in a storm and had been drifting for 11 weeks before he was found.

He was heading for Perth, Australia or Wellington, New Zealand. The only communication option he had on board was VHF.

The solo sailor seems to have had a good journey south through the Atlantic Ocean, but when he was sailing far off the South African coast 80 days ago a storm snapped his mast. Since then he has been drifting around in the Indian Ocean.